


Sanatorium

by merryghoul



Series: Bedlam [2]
Category: Luther (TV)
Genre: Community: au_bingo, References to Suicide, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-06
Updated: 2012-02-06
Packaged: 2017-10-30 16:58:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/333997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merryghoul/pseuds/merryghoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Follow-up to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/333630">Bedlam.</a>  Alice in the Barcelona area, exploring a sanatorium from the 1920s.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sanatorium

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: explorers

After spending a few days in Madrid, Alice heads to Barcelona. She heard there’s a sanatorium near the city, an abandoned one she can get lost in. It’s part of her grand urban exploration tour, a celebration of being free of Bethlem again. She’s not sure why she feels like she needs to visit this sanatorium. She thinks it’s because she needs to face her fears.

She travels to Tarragona, Spain, a short drive by taxi from Barcelona. It’s where the sanatorium of her nightmares is at. It seems idyllic—the sanatorium is near the sea, and the view is breathtaking. But the sanatorium, which was built in the 1920s, is abandoned and crumbling, the perfect place for urban explorers to explore its ruins and graffiti. Alice enters the sanatorium, being careful not to trip on the stairs.

Every room in the sanatorium is unique. Sometimes Alice would stumble across rotting furniture in one room. Another room would have fallen, dried palm tree leaves in the middle of it. Alice stops being frightened of this place. It’s a mental hospital from the past, not the present. There’s no one to restrain and confine her to a room. Alice is not slicing her wrists, hoping she bleeds enough blood to end it all before someone stops the bleeding.

As soon as Alice turns a corner, there’s debris and dirt awaiting her. She’s careful not to trip on the debris, even though she’s wearing boots. Sometimes there’s graffiti and people leaving messages in Spanish on the walls, their fingers lifting the dirt off of the walls. She takes pictures of the graffiti and the Spanish writing on the walls, hoping to send John a postcard.

Sometimes Alice would turn a corner and see the ocean through what would’ve been windows in the 1920s. She’s tempted to carefully step out of the windowpane and head towards the sea, but she keeps traveling through the sanatorium, lurking through its ruins.

Alice finds a hall with open doors. The circular windows have been broken in. The area looks like it could’ve been an emergency area of sorts; the doors look like they could be swinging doors. Of all the things Alice has taken pictures of in the sanatorium, this hall with the broken swinging doors intrigues her the most. She can’t believe mental hospitals in the 1920s weren’t as padded and heavily guarded as Bethlem is today. Then again, she can, since she’s 90 or so years removed from this hospital. She takes pictures of the hall. Once the film’s developed, one of those pictures will be her postcard to John, she decides.

 

With her photos developed, Alice is back in her hotel room in Barcelona. It doesn’t have the view of the sanatorium, but it’s clean and comfy, free from dirt and vandalism.

On the back of the photo Alice takes a pen and draws a line in the middle. She writes John’s address on the right side, allowing enough room for stamps. On the left side of the card she writes:

_Finally escaped the sanatorium! You should be here escaping with me. :)_

_Zoe_


End file.
